Samuel h



S. H. HARRINGTON.

ELECTRIC RAIL BOND.

(Application filed J'una 16. 18

Pdtented June 6,1899.

Witnesses. Inventor. @%7 -7 XM #-W &

UNiTnn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL H. HARRINGTON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ELECTRIC RAIL-BOND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 626,377, dated June 6, 1899.

Application filed June 16, 1898. Serial No. 683,551. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL I-I. HARRING- TON, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Electric Rail-Bonds, of which the following is a true and exact de scription, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part thereof.

My invention relates to rail-bonds such as are used for electrically connecting rails in electric railways, my object being to provide an efficient, practicable, and cheap device for securing and anchoring the terminals. of the bonds in perforations of the rails and particularly to provide for an anchoring device which can be brought into operation from the same side of the rail into which the bond plugs or thimbles are inserted, a feature which is of great importance where rails already in position have to be bonded or rebonded.

The nature of my invention will be best understood as described in connection with the drawings, in which it is illustrated, and inwhich Figure 1 is a sectional view illustrating my invention applied in the manner in which I prefer to use it, while Fig. 2 illustrates the application of my invention in a somewhatdifferent construction and shows also the method of anchoring the bond in the rail in accordance with my invention.

A indicates the web, and A the base, of a rail.

B indicates inclined and slightly-conical perforations formed through the rail at the junction of its web and base, and where, as is obvious, the maximum surface is obtained for the bond receiving perforation. It is proper to say here that the construction illustrated in Fig. 1 in so far as the inclined perforation forming an enlarged contact-surface for the plug or thimble of the bond is concerned forms the subject-matter of my prior patent, No. 608,258, of August 2, 1898.

B, Fig. 2, indicates a conical perforation formed through the web of the rail in a direction perpendicular to the faces of the web. This for my purposes is not so good a construction as that illustrated in Fig. 1, not only because it does not aiford the large contact-surface desirable, but also because practically with the large contacting surface of the plug-hole B it is practicable to use a very gradual taper, while with the straight hole B itis necessary that the taper of the hole should be decidedly more abrupt.

0 indicates the contact plug or thimble, one of which is secured to each end of the bondbody, (indicated at D.)

E indicates a port-ion of the metal of the rail at the edge of the perforation,which after the contact-plug is driven into position in the perforation of the rail is forced inward and into the metal of the contact-plug. This forcing in of the metal E may be conveniently done by a chisel, such as is indicated at F in Fig. 2, and while one such anchorage will, I think, be almost always sufficient two or more can of course be provided with little or no more trouble.

Practical experience with this invention has taught me that it is perfectly successful in constructions such as indicated in Fig. 1, where the perforation and plug are of slight taper and a tight frictional contact and union is made by the same act of driving the bond plugs or terminals in place. The anchorage afforded by the inwardly-driven metal E is in such constructions perfectly efficient. Where, however, the contacting surface is not only smaller in area, but more angular in outline, the anchoring projections E, while efficient, are not so absolutely reliable as in the firstmentioned construction, and it may be best to supplement them with some other anchoring mechanism.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A rail-bond D having conical thimbles or plugs O at its ends in combination with a conically-perforated rail or rails into which the plug or plugs are tightly driven and an anchorage for the plugs consisting of an edge portion E of the rail driven inward from the edge of the rail perforation into the metal of the plug in tight frictional contact therewith after the said plug is seated in the perforation.

SAMUEL H. HARRINGTON.

Witnesses:

JOHN M. FORDHAM, PETER A. SLATTERY. 

